Hob Gadling, also known as Robert, Robbie, or Bobby, is a fictional character from the Sandman comic book series by Neil Gaiman.
A soldier who has recently fought in the Hundred Years' War, Gadling argues with friends about the nature of death in an inn located in what will become modern-day London.
He develops significance both as a recurrent character in the series and friend to Dream, appearing in a total of seven issues spanning six hundred years.
2, "The Doll's House" issue #13, "Men of Good Fortune" in 1389, sitting in a smoky tavern, the White Horse, in what will eventually become the East End of London.
Having lost his most recent significant other in a car accident, Hob is devastated and asks Dream to resurrect her, remarking that "it never gets easier, people you love not being there any more".
In "Sunday Mourning", Hob attends a Renaissance festival with his African-American girlfriend Guenevere and reminisces guiltily about the slave trade.
He also makes an appearance in The Sandman Presents: Dead Boy Detectives spinoff, where Gilles De Rais tricks Charles Rowland and Edwin Paine into tracking Gadling down in an attempt to harvest his immortality.
You just forget about it",[3] echoing the structure of Gadling's own earlier thoughts on death in "Men of Good Fortune": "The only reason people die, is because everyone does it.
"[1] Gaiman has said that he based Gadling's speech pattern on that of British actor Bob Hoskins, particularly in the film The Long Good Friday.
[4] He has been regularly portrayed as a man of middle height with slightly receding reddish-brown hair, but only in "Sunday Mourning" did artist Michael Zulli base his appearance on a specific person: Ian Anderson, lead singer of rock band Jethro Tull.